Ethnobotany

Savor the SouthwestI produce a blog with two other remarkable women involved in the food of the Southwest. We discuss edible wild plants, foods that grow well here like citrus and olives, and flavors typical to the Southwest. Sometimes we'll highlight a new book by one of our colleagues. We take turns so there are three posts every month. The links will take you to the full blog.

This pandemic takes me back to the research I did on the biography of Navajo politician Annie Dodge Wauneka. She was a child at Ft. Defiance School in 1918 during the Spanish flu. Her father Chee brought home to his ranch his other three children but left her at school. She got a light case of the flu and then helped the matron nurse the other ill students. Many died and she recalled "they just piled up the bodies like a bunch of wood and hauled them away." As an adult, she spent decades working for the health of the Navajo people. Her story is in "I'll Go and Do More," and the young reader "Keeping the Rope Straight."Here is Annie about this time, second from right.